Register for
EE Week 2010
Join millions of teachers and students in a week of educational preparation for Earth Day.
Subscribe Now
Subscribe to our monthly EE Week newsletterNature Journaling Weblog
Nature Journaling Tip #8: Creating a Classroom Nature Center
Nature journals support a classroom environment that promotes science inquiry and literacy. Encourage your students to bring objects from outdoors such as leaves, cones, seedpods, mussel shells, and fossils.
Nature Journaling Tip #7: Into the Schoolyard and Back in the Classroom
Take your students and their journals outdoors. Don't forget your own journal! Your own modeling of observing and recording is important to your students' understanding of your expectations. Write the date, time of day, location, and a note about the weather, and model this for your students.
Nature Journaling Tip #6: Focus on Inquiry
A nature journal is a simple yet effective tool for recording observations, organizing data, and making sense of what you observe. It is the most essential tool in a toolkit for productive inquiry and personal discovery, and can turn any contact with the natural world into an opportunity to learn.
Nature Journaling Tip #5: Make a Viewfinder
Fold a 3X5 card in half the short way. Use scissors to cut into the fold about half an inch from the edge, across the top, and back down to the fold. When you unfold the card you will have a window or viewfinder.
Use the viewfinder as if you were looking through a camera lens.
Nature Journaling Tip #4: Learn How to Use a Hand Lens
Next to your field journal and a pencil, the most important tool of the naturalist is your hand lens. A simple plastic model with 3X and 6X lenses can be purchased for a few dollars from any science supply catalog.
Showing 11 - 15 of 18 columns